The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-05-08
CUSTER'S LAST CHARGE.
Description of the Fatal Fight with
the Redskins.

Potomac" writes to the Arkansau
Traveller of the painting of the Battle Of
the Rosebud" the last fight made by
Custer and his heroic little band on that
ill-starred expedition into the Little Big
Horn country which started out from
Fort Lincoln. this territory. The artist
was ]. Elder, of Richmond, Va, and of
the picture "Potomac" writes:
The artist has seized the moment
when, inspired by race courage and the
desperateness of the situation, Custer
headed the final charge, hoping against
hope to break the gradually contracted
line of the foe-choosing to die as Re-
came q soldier, rather than suffer the
slow death the delayed succor had every
hour made more inevitable. He is to,be
seen at the head of his column. his fam
Gus charger at full speed ;heedless of the
unequal number of the enemy; full in
sight of numbers who have selected him
as their victim; his head bare of cover
ing: his hair, as fine and soft as
woman's, flowing upon the wind; his
sword uplifted to cleave q savage who
has dared to summon his courage to q
duel with wounded fellow officer. Be
side the demon who. with poised and
cleaning scalping-knife, is rushing at
the wounded officer-,he daredevil to
the accomplishment of whose deserts
Custer has raised his trusty blade
there is another sinewy savage with ar
row directed at Custer, his drawn bow
strained to its utmost tension by arms
the muscles of which are like twisted
steel. Another, older and more willy,
crouches behind dead charger. rife i'll
hand, eye upon the white chief, his
dusky face rejecting his consciousness
of the foeman's proves.
The story of the few against the many |
is well pictured. Over the brow of the !
hill they come, and from the brush and /
grassy coverts where they hid, the
down to the saturnalia of blood. They |
are outnumbered and undone, and yet
they are all there, the rank and file of
Clusters band. 1t is a struggle OF life
for life. An Iron-gray
horst, with empty saddle, staggering
lnder his death-wound, coughing blood
as he reels, and gauut from the famine
1t man and beast, is also a pItiful ad-
unct of the scene. To the left of Gus
,er, in his rear, and on his right, brave
men OF the race with haxen hair and
air face are going swiftly to their death.
Three in particular are seen-one with
head upon his breast, one falling across
lis horses neck, the other falling back
With hands appraised to his head in
though in the saddle still,
md steeds at wild gallop. dead by the
land of the foe. Two others are seen,
iders and horses Frustrated, and the
men fallen prone across their horses
lecks. Another is pitching forward
rom his saddle for whom the charge
will sound no more. Another is dead
lpon the ground, with fixed look up
urned and trace of pain upon his pallid
ace. The slain who have fallen before
he fire of the whites are not many, but
here is evidence in sight that before the
ght has ended the savages will mourn
hecatomb of their braves. A trooper
dealing surely with one, the very
cath of whom almost fills the spectator
nth race exultation. A trumpeter has
allen in the foreground, dead at his
ost. The brave Custer is not made to
'ok the hero merely according to poetic
ancy, but there is also in his set, reso-
lite face, and in his strong, uplifted
rm, with saber raised in air, the cour-
&c of hundred kings.